Economic Beat

Bad News for Part-Timers

Unemployment rates slips to 7.7%, but inability of many part-timers to land full-time work persists. Is there a perverse link to Obamacare?

After warning of job losses that would result from budget cutbacks due to the sequester, President Barack Obama waived his opportunity on Friday to do a victory lap in response to upbeat news from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The BLS reported that nonfarm payroll jobs had risen in February by an unexpectedly solid 236,000, while the unemployment rate fell to 7.7%, the lowest recorded level since the president took office in January 2009.

The headline measure of joblessness, down from 7.9% in January, is still...